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LOS ANGELES (JTA) — U.S. Reform Jewish leaders recommended that parents withdraw their children from the Boy Scouts and that synagogues end their sponsorship of Scout troops.

The Joint Commission on Social Action's Jan. 5 letter to congregations, is believed to be the strongest reaction yet to the U.S. Supreme Court decision last June allowing the Boy Scouts to exclude homosexuals.

The Boy Scouts' stance on gays is "incompatible with our consistent belief that every individual regardless of his or her sexual orientation is created in the image of God and is deserving of equal treatment," the letter said.

Ad-free MTV probes gay death, hate crimes

NEW YORK (JTA) — MTV aired 18 commercial-free hours Wednesday night and yesterday, with celebrities reading accounts of national hate crimes.

The programming on the U.S. music-video channel, which followed a movie on the 1998 murder of 21-year-old Wyoming gay college student Matthew Shepard, is part of MTV's yearlong anti-discrimination campaign.

Jewish 'greens' root Clinton, as he leaves

NEW YORK (JTA) — A Jewish environmental group praised President Clinton's decision to protect more than 58 million acres of U.S. national forests from future development.

"When Jews around the U.S. gather soon to celebrate Tu B'Shevat, the Jewish New Year of the Trees, we will rejoice" as a result of Clinton's move, which will will prevent commercial logging and oil and gas development, said Mark Jacobs, president of the Coalition on the Environment and Jewish Life.

Two prominent Jews get presidential praise

WASHINGTON (JTA) — Rabbi Arthur Schneier and Marion Wiesel were among 28 Americans whom President Clinton honored for their public service with Presidential Citizens medals at a White House ceremony Monday.

Schneier, founder of the N.Y.-based Appeal of Conscience Foundation, was the first rabbi to receive the award. He was recognized for his leadership on behalf of religious freedom and human rights. Wiesel, the wife of Nobel laureate Elie Wiesel, was honored for her efforts to combat hatred.